Book series, and a touch of procastination

17 December

Some time ago I gave up on Game of Thrones 5 and stopped reading it around 2/3 way through. We have both enjoyed the DVDs though. With Series 6 having just come out we bought and watched them just after they were released. I’ve been trying to keep up with what Mr Martin is up to, especially as there seems to be sign of Vol;8 of the series coming out soon. One FB friends said he gave up on the telly shows with series four because they had moved too far from the books. So, a couple of nights ago I returned to GOT5 and continued reading from where I left off, re-reading the first 2/3s was a bit much really.

The point of all this is to say that there is no way that a 770 page book can be crammed into ten 50 minute TV shows. Not only that but some of the scenes in the book need to be played out better, or more dramatically on screen. A scene where a character goes to bed at night and wakes blind in the book, looks far more dramatic if said character goes blind suddenly and unexpectedly. If that is moving away from the book too far, then so be it. All in all though, I’m still enjoying the journey through Westeros and I’ll be happy when #8 is on the market. However, it looks like we will have a long wait. Mr Martin is toying with the idea of another, but different series to start writing. Readers must hope it’s not another series he will get fed-up with and move on again.

I suppose that is a danger when it comes to book series that are not stand alone stories in their own right, Rankin’s Rebus books for example. So what of my own writing then? I have two series on the go, Fred Cooper in Cambridge and David Oxford in in Portsmouth. Arathusia  will not be a standalone story, I can see it becoming a fairly long series. Mission, with Alan Parsons is currently just a one off, or is it? A few months ago I had a dream which has set off another story idea and that one now stands at around 4,000 words, with the retired Mr Parsons coming out of retirement. I keep seeing ads for items with the words, ‘So many books, so little time!’ on them. How about, ‘So many ideas and words, so little time,’ for us writers? No wonder me ed urts …

You do know what the problems is don’t you? It’s not getting fed up with things as Mr Martin seems to be, no, it’s too much time being waste on social media, the great procrastination excuse in the sky! That’s what it is. But hang on a mo … How will be find new writers and books with it? Newspapers, magazines TV … but all of those drawn the unwary from the pleasures of a blank screen needing to be filled with words of wisdom or of the dreams of us writers. Or even an A4 pad with a pencil or a nice pen? Just the same my friends, just the same … and of course, writing a daily blog!

Today’s photo …

seeing as I’m on about writing again, how could it be anything else.

Today’s funny …

A man was staggering home drunk in the early hours of the morning when he was stopped by a police officer. 'What are you doing out at this time of night?' asked the officer.
'I'm going to a lecture,' slurred the drunk. 'And who's going to give a lecture at this hour?'
'My wife.'